Autism Awareness Month

Autism Fact: Autism training is not routinely provided as part of police training in the UK

I'm an ex-teacher so I have worked with a variety of children including those on the autistic spectrum. I was a maths teacher in a mainstream school and previously a learning support teacher working with a small group of children who couldn't deal with the classroom environment. There were issues, sure, but as a whole my experience I guess had always been a watered down version of what Autism was.

Then I met RJ Scott and not too long after I met her son Matthew. Now, if you're expecting me to say how terrible it was and how I never went back, then you'd be wrong. RJ can't get rid of me these days. At the time, I think RJ was more worried than me, though to be fair as she worried about what I'd think and how Matt would be with me, I then started to panic as I really didn't want to be a reason for upsetting him and what he was used to.

As it turned out, because I'm apparently 'relaxation' personified, meeting Matt actually turned out to be quite fun. And one reason it was fun is...

Going forward - My Writing.

What does the rest of 2014 have in store?

Well, let me tell you :)

In order...

1. Currently, I am working on Alter Ego. The book is set in England, in a village based on where my grandparents lived as I was growing up. It is the first in a series of romance/dramas and I look forward to sharing these men's stories with you all. The first characters you'll meet are James and Danny and I hope you will love them as much as I do.

2. Also this month, RJ Scott and I will be starting work on our fifth Sapphire Cay book - Capture the Sun. Expect more romance, sun, sea, and drama.

Following those, I have two books to edit/rework.

Let's rewind to Summer 2012. *wibbly flashback lines* I'd just had my first releases with Silver Publishing and the future was full of promise, wonderment, and exciting things.

Most of you are aware of the situation faced by authors at Silver for the last... wow, I don't even know when it all began, it feels like it's always been there just looming off camera. I'm not speaking for other authors or their situations. I made my decisions about what I was going to do so I could keep moving forward and have releases with new-to-me publishers in this last year, Totally Bound and Extasy. As things are changing at Silver, my books have been removed from sale and I've now had my rights returned to me for Sex and Cocktails and Dead Things.

3. Sex and Cocktails - originally this was written for a summer short story call. With that in mind, the story was written from a single POV. So my plan is to expand the story and hear more from Ty before republishing.

4. Dead Things - until I reread it I'm not sure how much work I intend to do on it. I know there are things I want to add in or alter slightly but I have always been pretty happy with what I had as a story, so certainly nothing too crazy will be changed before republishing.

5. Dead Things 2 - yep, that's right. With the rights back in my hands I am planning on finally getting round to sorting out a sequel. I've always wanted to but with things how they were it was never going to happen until the story and its world were mine again. And now they are. Expect more Devin and Noah, new survivors, and more zombie gore.

6. The Ugly Wolf - Well, we've had the Good and the Bad so I couldn't back out now :) This will be the last book in the trilogy featuring Dr Oliver Anderson who made an appearance in The Bad Wolf. His story has a different feel to it, not so violent and bloody, dare I say gentler? Guess we'll see later this year when I get stuck in.

7. There will be a seven eventually but I should probably see how I get on with the above first and where that takes me up to this year. :)

So, there you have it. Those are my current writing plans, along with the odd piece of cover art for my lovely authors, for 2014. It's going to be a good one.

Blog Life

Okay, how are we at April already?

At the start of the year I was filled with good intentions. I was going to get out more, see friends, do the garden and clear out the spare room, I was going to start (and stick with) that diet that I must have started a hundred times over in my life, I was going to write my wee heart out and start turning my ideas into full blown stories, get them out there and published.

I was going to blog more.

As it turns out, I've kind of sucked at all of the above.

Being an author isn't exactly the most active or social occupation and I do struggle to make myself step away and go out and do other things. It's so easy to sit and stare, some times even write, most of the time look at amusing videos of cats, and you forget the world is still turning and that you should probably be out in it just as much as you are shut away in your little writing world.